First of all, I'm posting this on behalf of myself and my room mate because this was a joint project (...which still took us 3 months. heh). She found the table and four chairs for just $123 (impressive, right?) at an antique store, and thus began our journey.

Here's how the process went:1.) sanded everything2.) primed everything3.) Sewed 5 different strips of various fabrics straight from my vast scrap collection (and man do i love finding uses for scraps) onto red suede (also from scrap collection =) 4.) base coated table with light purple and chairs with gray turquoise5.) ripped off 2 layers upholstery and super old cotton stuffing6.) at this point we realized how incredibly crappy the wooden seats were (one actually had "reject" stamped on it)... so we went to Lowe's to get new wood cut. Our next dilemma was that they could not cut on an angle at Lowe's, but our seats are a trapezoidal shape. Soooo... we had to wait until my awesome dad came to visit and brought his handy dandy zig saw. 7.) meanwhile... we painted over the gray turquoise with a mixture of navy, light blue, and sea green to make it the final color. Then we painted the back of the chairs with a red to purple gradiant and circular brush strokes. Finally for the chair painting we painted a purple bird on the top.8.) Next we painted the three stripes on the top of the table using the same circular brush strokes. Then came the dark purple and turquoise dry brushing. and to finish it we went back over some of the dry brushing with the original light purple (the dry brushing was a little overwhelming).9.) polyurethaned everything10.) So this is the part where we finish the table... enough to put on craftster (we aren't actually completely done. heh). So we cut foam, sanded the seats, and went to staple the fabric on... this is when we realized that my staple gun isn't powerful enough for the nicer wood. So i'm going to use my dad's electric staple gun when I go home for thanksgiving, but for the meantime we hot glued all the fabric. So the table is temporarily done. heh. It is really nice that it is finally usable (we had chairs without a piece of wood to sit on for like 2 months).

and now... here is the finished (kind of..) product at a million angles:

Holy Cow! This is awesome work! But what else astounds me even more is......the antique table and chairs are just like what my grandma had and have been passed down to my brother. NO JOKE! So now when I go to his house I will remember your post and what wonderful colors you used. The dry brushing is my fave! Great job!

that is so gorgeous. I didn't think the colors would go that well together, but they look amazing. I love the birds on the chairs too. It's all so perfect, you and your roommate should be really proud.

Interesting use of a faux phyfe; very unexpected! my grandparents have the same set, only i think they got rid of the harp chairs a while back in favor of something else. I love what you did with the cushions of the seats! I may have to steal that idea for future use...

Sunshine daydreamWalking in the tall treesGoing where the wind goesBlooming like a red roseBreathing more freelyRide out singing, I'll walk you in the morning sunshineSunshine daydreamSunshine daydreamWalking in the sunshine